Feminism will remain on the A-Level politics syllabus after an e-petition backed by Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq led to a government U-turn.

More than 50,000 people signed the e-petition set up by 17-year-old June Eric-Udorie after the Department of Education made plans to axe all mentions of sex and gender in the proposed syllabus.

Miss Eric-Udorie wrote: "When women are underrepresented in society, the government should be working to address this problem.

"As a young woman and student, it is imperative that girls and boys get the full picture at school, or we are doing them a disservice.

"It has been said that you cannot be what you cannot see."

A parliamentary debate on Monday (January 11) led by Ms Huq ended in an announcement that the subject will not be scrapped, although full details are yet to be established.

Schools Minister MP Nick Hurd said in the Commons: "Following the consultation on the politics A-level, exam boards are making changes to the final content to respond to the concerns raised and we will publish our response shortly.

"But I can assure you that the final politics A-level will give all students the opportunity to study the core ideas of feminism."

Following the announcement, Ms Huq said: "It looks like the government has at the very least effected a partial climbdown on the removal of feminism from the a-level politics syllabus however the announcement we have had so far is rather thin on detail."

Opposition to the new syllabus plans had grown in size, with the Liberal Democrats and Women's Equality Party backing campaigners before Monday's debate began.

Ms Huq told getwestlondon : “I don’t want a gender-blind curriculum.

"This is not some tangential airy-fairy thing; women are 50% and we can’t just delete them from the syllabus.”

In September 2015, 17-year-old Jesse McCabe from London succeeded in getting more females included on the music syllabus after raising the issue with Edexcel using an online petition.